Most of our discourse occurs below the level of demonstration.
We ask, object, respond. We proceed from what seems credible, but do not always know why we believe in it. We reject what others say, but are not always certain why we think it wrong.
This is the domain of dialectic.
Not the late-modern “dialectic” of contradiction as process of ideation or progress, nor mere debate, nor rhetoric addressed to the many. Rather: the conversational investigation of an important question that we have not yet resolved beyond probability.
This Wednesday, the Lyceum’s Philosophical Happy Hour turns to dialectic. Open to the public.